Anthropomorphic figures in the early layer of petroglyphs of the Minusinsk depression

The attribution of the earliest layer of petroglyphs is an open issue. Analyzing the earliest petroglyphs in this region, scholars mostly deal with realistic images of animals in the so called Minusinsk, Angara and mixed styles. However, a series of images of various anthropomorphic figures is also correlated with the earliest layer. In this paper the authors attempted to identify the groups of such anthropomorphic figures. As a result of the analysis of recently discovered palimpsests, two groups of images were identified that were created even before the images of animals: a group of «horned» little human figures (Fig. 1: 11-21) and a group of pin-shaped figures. The latter, in their turn were divided into large-sized (Fig. 1: 4-10) and narrow-bodied (Fig. 1: 1-3). Thus, it was determined that the earliest rock paintings in the Minusinsk Depression were images of people who were often overlapped by animal figures.